Daily Archives: September 4, 2016
Why Mississippi DMR paid $291K for a boat fishermen dream of
This is not Bill Walker’s Department of Marine Resources. The DMR just bought a 39-foot, offshore boat, but it won’t be used for the legislative fishing trips, fishing tournaments and birthday outings that Bill Walker sanctioned under his regime, Executive Director Jamie Miller told the Sun Herald. DMR intends to use the boat for collecting finfish samples offshore, most notably red snapper, Miller said when the Sun Herald interviewed him this week at the DMR’s reef staging site on the Industrial Seaway, where the boat is stored. Miller said the DMR wants hard data to prove what most offshore fishermen will already tell you: Red snapper are more plentiful than the federal government’s stingy fishing limits indicate. (Oh, and one other thing. Miller said the boat “absolutely” will be used in undercover operations to nab fishermen with illegal catches. The Contender will be marked as a DMR boat, but its 70-mph top speed means enforcers will be on top of those fishing illegally before they can dispose of their catches.) Video, Read the story here 14:32
Commercial Fishing in Yellowstone National Park – Killing one fish to save another
White-breasted gulls are following a slow-moving boat in Yellowstone Lake. The crew on board is up to something fishy. It’s four fishermen letting out an awful lot of net. The net sinks into the lake’s deep depths in a large S-curve created by the swerve of the captain’s turns. The crew manages up to 40 miles of netting. That netting collects 300,000 lake trout every summer. “We are aggressively netting non-native lake trout in Yellowstone Lake to reduce their predation on our native cutthroat,” says Todd Koel, Yellowstone National Park native fish conservation leader. An angler turned in an unusual catch in 1994. It was a fish that wasn’t supposed to be in Yellowstone Lake — a lake trout. The surprise catch hooked biologists with an unexpected problem. They had an invader in a fishery carefully monitored for the persistence of the park’s coveted native fish, Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Read the story here 13:33
Community Supported Fishery’s – Membership-driven fishery starts taking orders
A new community-supported fishery has opened in Carteret County, with a focus on providing seafood to local residents and visitors. On Aug. 27, Taylor Chadwick, a commercial fisherman from Beaufort and owner of Chadwick’s Seafood, officially began his own community-supported fishery. This type of fishery operates by having customers sign up for a membership and participating fishermen provide locally caught seafood to the members. An example of one such fishery, which was also started in Carteret County, is Walking Fish, but while that community fishery charges a monthly fee for its seafood and focuses on inland sales, Mr. Chadwick’s fishery charges for individual purchases and focuses on the local seafood market. According to the fishery’s website, chadwickseafood.com, the fishery will operate from March to December. Mr. Chadwick said members who sign up on the website may start placing orders for seafood on Monday. Read the story here 12:46
Outlook improves for Dungeness crab season
Even though last year’s “blob” of warm water finally dissipated, no one is resting easy — especially after the California Department of Public Health issued an advisory in August against eating rock crab from Half Moon Bay and Monterey Bay after the crustacean tested high for domoic acid. Government agencies and legislators are trying to streamline the process of opening and closing fisheries for the crab season, so that areas that stay free of algal blooms can remain open even if other areas have to close, keeping more safe crab on the table and fishers in business. “We’re cautiously optimistic that we won’t see the widespread pervasive domoic acid levels that are above health alert levels,” said Craig Shuman, marine region manager of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who said that safety testing on Dungeness crab will start this month, which is earlier than usual. Read the story here 12:05
Marlborough Sounds Blue Cod fishing ban has been branded “insane” by fishermen
A ban on commercial blue cod fishing in the Marlborough Sounds has been branded “insane” by fishermen who will be out of work for the next four months. The Ministry for Primary Industries closed the Sounds to commercial blue cod fishers for the first time on Thursday. The season closure will run until December 20. Fisherman Kelly Aldridge said the ban meant he could not fish in an area which comprised 85 per cent of his fishing ground, in the outer Sounds. It was effectively putting him out of work until Christmas. “My boat’s not big enough to travel further afield,” he said. Commercial fishermen could normally catch blue cod in the Sounds all year, while the area was closed to recreational fishers from September 1 to December 20. Read the story here 11:06
Post-Tropical Cyclone HERMINE Public Advisory
At 800 AM EDT (1200 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Hermine was located near latitude 37.0 North, longitude 70.0 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the east-northeast near 12 mph (19 km/h). A turn toward the northeast and the north with a decrease in forward speed is expected later today, followed by a slow northward to northwestward motion through Monday. On the forecast track, the center of Hermine will meander slowly offshore of the mid-Atlantic coast for the next couple of days. Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph (100 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is expected today. After that, the cyclone is forecast to intensify to hurricane force late tonight and on Monday. Hermine has a large wind field. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles (335 km) from the center. Read the rest here 09:56
Commercial F/V Sweet Marie rescues 26 passengers from grounded charter boat in Mexican waters
More than two dozen people on board a 63-foot sport-fishing boat were rescued in Mexican waters Saturday morning near the Coronado Islands southwest of San Diego, according to authorities. The U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Diego Joint Harbor Operations Center heard the call for help at about 5 a.m. that the American-flagged vessel Invicta had crashed into rocks. The Invicta was reported to be taking on water while it was anchored and the crew were deploying their life rafts, according to Coast Guard officials. Five crewmembers and 21 passengers were on board. The crew of the 35-foot commercial fishing vessel Sweet Marie overheard the calls for help and diverted to assist the Invicta, the Coast Guard said. Sweet Marie’s crew arrived on scene and safely transported all 26 passengers and crewmembers aboard their vessel and began to make way toward San Diego. Read the story here Watch video here 08:48
Video Update: Coast Guard rescues 3 fishermen and a dog from disabled vessel near Wachapreague, Va
The Coast Guard rescued three fishermen and a dog Saturday after their vessel became disabled and ran aground two miles off Wachapreague Inlet. Watchstanders in the Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads Command Center in Portsmouth received notification at 2:42 a.m. Saturday that the 60-foot commercial fishing vessel Storm was soft aground near Wachapreague Inlet with three people and a dog aboard. The vessel freed itself, however two hours later the crew discovered serious damage to the rudder along with flooding. A 47-foot Motor Life Boat (MLB) crew launched from Coast Guard Station Chincoteague at 4:47 a.m. and made way toward the scene in 12-15 foot seas, arriving at 8:18 a.m. The MLB crew found Storm adrift with no way to steer the vessel. The MLB crew assessed the situation and determined a tow would not work due to the deck configuration of the fishing vessel and the sea state. The crew aboard Storm attempted to anchor the vessel to prevent it from drifting but were not successful due to the heavy weather. By this time the heavy seas made it too dangerous for a direct transfer of people between vessels. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew launched from Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, at 12:23 p.m. The aircrew arrived on scene at 1:02 p.m., and hoisted all three people and their dog to the helicopter by 1:58 p.m. They were transported to Richmond International Airport, arriving at 2:30 p.m. Fishing vessel Storm remains unmanned and adrift with an activated EPIRB aboard and all navigational lights energized. Link Watch the video here 08:07
